This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to the present embodiments that are described below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light.
There are many environments where multiple video display devices (e.g., televisions (TVs), monitors, and computers) exist but only a few tuners/receivers are in place to send audio and video to the display devices. Sports bars are a prime example of such an environment, but many others such examples are extant. Such an environment is present when it is desired to send different channels or subchannels to different places in the environment, but for cost, efficiency or other reasons, only a limited number of receivers are provided.
In the sports bar environment, for example, bartenders or managers want to be able to control the content on each TV without having to use single or multiple TV remotes, since using a TV remote now requires walking to each TV with a specific remote to change the channel and further may cause adjacent TVs to also change channels.
One such receiver system, although there are many such receiver systems, that is often placed in a multiple TV environment such as a sports bar is a content distribution system, which is a satellite TV receiver system capable of tuning and transcrypting a plurality of TV channels and which tunes and demodulates a motion picture entertainment group (MPEG) standard MPEG-2 transport stream. The receiver system further distributes the streams in an environment through a communication network using a transmission device. The transmission device may be a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulator device for transmitting a broadcast cable signal or an internet protocol (IP) data distribution device for transmitting an IPTV signal.
In a broadcast cable signal distribution system, the receiving system includes a modulator card or board that receives the demodulated MPEG-2 transport stream for further distribution. The card includes a QAM modulator that receives MPEG-2 transport packets from an Ethernet port and then QAM modulates the MPEG-2 transport packets on one of a plurality of carrier frequencies. Each input stream results in one output QAM modulated channel (such as cable channel 50-1). The user (e.g., bartender) may further change a video program displayed on one of the televisions at the establishment by changing channels on the television.
The receiving system is also typically installed with a limited number of tuning resources (e.g., tuners). Most installations will service a number of televisions in the environment that is greater than the number of tuning resources installed. As a result, conflicts may arise with respect to the video programming displayed on one or more of the televisions. For instance, the system may not have a sufficient number of tuning resources to provide the request change. Further, the user may be unaware that the change may affect the operation of other televisions.
A similar problem exists for video recording, particularly with respect to identifying recording conflicts. In the video recording setting, when more than the maximum number of programs is to be recorded, the user is presented with the conflict and asked for the solution. However, the video recording solution does not include operation on multiple televisions simultaneously and does not address limited tuning resource problems. Therefore, there is a need for an improved mechanism for managing the signals supplied to multiple video display devices in an establishment. Further, in order to minimize an undesired or unexpected interruption of television viewing for some or all of the patrons at a facility, a user interface that permits management of the channel/resource allocation in a way as to minimize impact of the additional channel request would be advantageous.